


Mutualism

by flying_siphonophore



Category: Dorohedoro
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Consensual Sex, Devil's Contract, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Exhibitionism, F/M, How Do I Tag, I guess? Whatever the fuck the Partnership is lol, Implied Emotional Infidelity, Insecurity, Jealousy, Magic, Makeup Sex, Making Up, Naked Female Clothed Male, Occult, Partial Mind Control, Partial Nudity, Possession, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Sex, Sex Magic, Smut, but it's also a weird situation cuz it's Dorohedoro, cuz it's fuckin dorohedoro, everything between the reader and En is consensual don't get tripped up by the tags, hopefully if you've seen/read the manga you'll get it????, no beta we die like men, not during the sex tho, reader has magic, reader is a sorcerer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:29:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26366476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flying_siphonophore/pseuds/flying_siphonophore
Summary: Having a partner is about more than what they can do for you, or how useful they are. It’s just as much about what you can--and must--do for them.En relearns that the hard way.
Relationships: En & Nikaido (Dorohedoro), En (Dorohedoro)/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	Mutualism

**Author's Note:**

> This is incredibly niche. Idk where this came from. En is daddy as fuck and I'm into it. Also Dorohedoro is just in general all sorts of fucked up, but it is also very, very good and funny. I enjoy it a lot, so you should go read/watch it if you want an interesting manga/anime to consume. The manga is complete, also!!!!
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: Nothing sexual happens to Nikaido. Fuck that. Nikaido's situation is definitely weird and uncomfortable, and that's kind of highlighted in this fic just a tad. But also sorcerers and the Dorohedoro world in general is just fucked up, so it's not necessarily out of the norm, and if follows the plot of En and Nikaido's relationship (that I'm aware of, cuz I've only seen the anime) as it's represented in canon. I love Nikaido and her character a lot, so please forgive some of the rudeness expressed towards her in this fic :(

En's desire for a Partner blessed with time magic has never kept you from making your intentions clear and completely understood. Even when that blond bitch showed up, was subdued and contractually connected to En, you made sure _En_ knew _his_ place.

The week before the Blue Night, you made arrangements to take a vacation, knowing En would be completely consumed with his fantasies of the perfect Partner, and yourself vulnerable to some possessive sorcerer gagging for a spot in En's family who wasn't worth your time or power.

It's near the end of your vacation that through a Door comes a messenger. You lie supine on white granite, next to an iridescent pool of water, sunglasses upon your face and bikini hugging your body tight.

With your eyes still shut and your muscles still soaking up the heat of the sun, you do not move. "Speak."

"Master En, um...found a P-Partner, miss." She mumbles.

You sigh through your nose, reaching up a hand to nudge down the long swirly straw you've been using to drink your fruity cocktail. "Who is it?" The remnants of the alcohol slurps, ice tinkles against glass.

The tension in the air finally hits you, and from behind the blue glass of your sunglasses, your eyes crack open to gaze unwaveringly at the bright spot that is the sun.

" _Who is it?_ "

"A-A woman! Named Nikaido! She...She has _time magic._ " The sorcerer sounds like she's going to cry. Not for you, no. But for herself, and the unfortunate reality that she had been given the task to inform you of this strange and terrible occurrence.

Silence stretches on, and the sun burns bright behind your eyelids as you contemplate.

Softly, with your teeth clamping down on the end of your plastic swirly straw with a tick of your jaw, you whisper, "Huh. Good for him."

\--

To say your magic is remarkable would be an overstatement. To be perfectly honest, you're only situationally useful, though you chafe to even be compared to the likes of Chouta and his gilded cage.

No, you are certainly different than that bird-brained idiot on the basis En has been nothing but loyal to you for ten fulfilling years. While you've never been Contractually Partnered with your lover, you've also never pushed him to Partner with you beyond a single mild conversation with the man at the beginning of your relationship.

His drawn out silence was enough of an answer for you upon floating the idea out to him. It was his awkward attempt to let you down softly that grated your nerves.

"Then who do you want as a Partner?" You'd cut him off mid apologetic ramble before he said something he regrets, and his beady eyes peered at you suspiciously where you sat across from him. While your pride was somewhat wounded, your goal was never to Partner with En. At least, not by the Devil's Contract. A nice bonus if he'd been interested, but not necessary for the relationship you seek.

En swirls his glass of whiskey, watching you spear a sauteed mushroom with a polished fork and bring it between ruby red lips. "I seek a sorcerer with magic that affects time."

That definitely wasn't you, so you made your peace with it. The likelihood of such a powerful sorcerer revealing themselves was low, so you didn't dwell. You didn't think twice about En's casual use of the Partnership to bring certain sorcerers into his family, nor did you involve yourself in the process of actively helping En look for his desired Partner.

No, you chose to put your energy into more important tasks. Like enjoying your relationship with En. Whether or not he really believes you when you tell him you don’t care about being his Partner isn't of your concern. You simply want to share in his experiences, and him in yours, and have a mostly good time while you're at it.

"If your goal isn't Partnership, then what is it?" He gave you a searching look a year in, arms crossed protectively over his barrel chest.

"I'm looking for something much more dangerous," you teased to him, sipping wine alone in a massive and empty theater, watching a troupe of sorcerers perform transformative and illusory magic for you and your date’s entertainment.

"Oh?" He gave you a curious glance over his mask. "And what's that?"

You wink at him over your sunglasses. "Stick around and maybe you'll find out."

Indeed he did. Another year after that, while bedding you in his massive, comfortable mattress a week after another disappointing Blue Night, he'd coaxed the answer from you with crooks of his tongue against your clit and the strange throbs of your magics thrumming across your skin.

With a gasp and an arch, sweating thighs slipping on his broad shoulders, you allowed your love to be declared through a shakey, airy moan, fingers tugging restlessly at his carmine hair. The room glows softly as your magic flickers and roils to life, rolling and twisting under your skin with aurora-lit veins, bringing forth vague, spotty outlines of organs, ethereal greens and reds and yellows in your skin tone and the cellular pattern in which your tissue grows. Like you have a dying star deep in your gut, exploding with it’s light and dust into the blackness of space.

A deep, low rumble comes from the man between your thighs, slurping away from your dripping cunt to crawl up between your quaking thighs. You blink up at him, ignoring the urge to shy away from his wide eyed gaze, and lean into his hand as it swipes your hair away for him to kiss you roughly.

His chest vibrates with another groan as the mushroom head of his cock coaxes its way inside your dripping walls, pressing against singing nerves, kiss breaking enough for him to growl out, "Love truly is the most dangerous thing, isn't it?" He grunts and you whimper with each firm slap of his cock into your center, your cheeks feeling hot and not from your magic. "Makes you do all manner of, _ungh_ , c-crazy and stupid th-things!"

You relax back into his soft pile of pillows, twist your fingers into the silken sheets, and let En push your knees out and up, gazing back up at his sweating, muscular form. In the low light your body provides, you see him watching you with an intense shine reflecting in his eye.

"You'd do all of it for me, wouldn't you?" You ask, voice breathy and tight, your question prodding the powerful and almighty king of this realm, in everything but name.

And En groans, leaning over you and digging his cock as deep as he can into your wet and squeezing body, growling _yes, yes, yes_ against your cheek as you lose the ability to breathe with your second quivering, messy orgasm all over him.

When he comes inside you, hitching a pliant leg up and over his shoulder to shoot as deep as he can get, he shivers through his own confession of adoration while gazing into your fiery eyes, making your cunt clench and your pretty lips smile.

\--

Marble clicks beneath your heels as you enter En's massive estate. His cronies quickly jump from your path, bow to your presence while you stride your way to the elevators.

Turning a corner, you see the familiar skull and heart masks of Noi and Shin at the end of the elaborate hall, their bulky forms hard to miss. Whatever conversation they're having pauses when Shin catches sight of you, his slouched shoulders pulling up quickly at your presence.

"Ma'am," he greets with a respectful nod, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Welcome back."

Noi croons and waves. "You’re glowing more than usual, Miss! Did you enjoy your vacation?"

You can't help but smile at her. "I did. Thank you." You glance between them from behind your sunglasses, sensing something unseen, and a carefully plucked brow rising. "I see you renewed your Contracts. Congratulations on not getting caught by someone unworthy."

Shin glances away, scratching at his neck while Noi bounces on her toes, the embarrassed but pleased energy coming off the two of them endearing. “Not for a lack of trying…”

"Thank you, Miss!" Noi exclaims, giving a little bow.

Clearing his throat, Shin brings your attention back to him. "Um, if you're looking for En, he's in his study with Nikaido. His new Partner." He gestures towards the elevators.

You roll the name around on your tongue, murmuring it out loud. The two Cleaners stiffen as your head tilts, your skin fluttering with a small, almost imperceptible flare of light beneath it.

A manicured finger pushes on the corner of your sunglasses, lowering them closer to the tip of your nose. White glowing sclera roll in their sockets, opalescent irises contracting to fixate on the two large and loyal individuals before you. Noi freezes mid-bounce, and Shin loses his posture.

"How is Nikaido?" You ask, voice carefully neutral. You don't blink, the roiling energy you've amassed from your time in the sun fluttering like hot coals in your gaze.

Shin laughs nervously, but Noi answers without much tact. "She's a firecracker! She's already punched En a few times and survived his seeding! She and her friends have messed us up once or twice, right Shin? She's from the Hole and has been pretty chill since the Blue Night, and En seems to really like her!"

Shin winces, rubbing a hand over his covered face while Noi spills the beans. As she talks, he watches another flare pulse beneath your skin like a deceptively calm wave hiding an aggressive riptide beneath the surface, pretty brow twitching and lips pursing in distaste.

"Y-You know En has it all under control, Ma'am," Shin tacks on at the end, elbowing Noi hard in the ribs to shut her up.

"I would hope so." Your tone has lost some of its warmth, and Shin bows quickly, Noi a second behind. Your heels click as you stride past them. "His study, you said?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Shin calls, standing straight to watch your back grow smaller until you round a corner. The Cleaner leans back into the wall with a sigh, rubbing at his chest. "She's gonna eat him alive," he mutters, wincing under his mask with his anxiety.

"Mm?" Noi asks, tilting her head in confusion.

Shin waves his hand. "C'mon. Let's get out of here before this whole castle comes down on our heads. We've got a lizardman to find." He definitely doesn't want to be here for whatever fight will no doubt come from this. A rare occurrence between you and En, considering how well you get along and how long you’ve been together, but the few he’s witnessed has left Shin a little fearful of the potential fallout.

\--

The elevator ride up to En's personal study is short and swift. You do your best not to ruin your lipstick by chewing nervously on your bottom lip. Instead you make sure your tight pencil skirt is in place, and unbutton another button on your blouse, breasts nearly spilling out.

You huff down at your cleavage. You feel silly. Insecure. You hate that you do, grimacing while you straighten your gold cuffs, the cute mushroom shaped cufflinks En had gifted you years ago winking back mockingly. You try to remind yourself to trust in En's promise from long ago, but what you find on the other side of the parting elevator doors makes it difficult to find comfort in those words.

Icy blue light spills through the cracking doors, flooding the golden glow inside the lift. You step out and further into the dark room, eyes sweeping over the two figures on the couch.

En sits watching a large screen with a busty, pretty blond perched on his lap. His arms are spread across the back of the couch, and you realize with a frown he's clad in some sort of punkish leather jacket instead of his usual sleek suit. She--who you can only gather is Nikaido--leans back into his broad chest with a disturbingly vacant expression on her face, blue eyes trained on the familiar action flick playing on screen.

The younger blond glances your way first, blinking at you curiously. En seems to notice her distraction, and murmurs, "Hey, you're going to miss the best part." When she doesn't react, he tilts his head to follow her gaze, beady eyes meeting yours as you remove your sunglasses and hook them in the low cut front of your blouse.

"Baby. Welcome back." He bounces a thigh and Nikaido slips off his lap, allowing him to rise and walk the length of the room. If he can tell you're displeased, he says nothing. His hands clasp your shoulders, rubbing them before pulling you into a hug. "How was your time away?"

"Whose this?" You wince into his shoulder, but En doesn't notice that you ignored his question.

He sweeps an arm eagerly towards the blank young woman, hooking an arm around your waist and dragging you into his side. It's where you want to be, but it feels tainted by the strange intimacy you walked in on and the smell of...is that _dumpling?_ You frown. "Meet my new Partner! Nikaido! She has the time magic I've been looking for!” He waves at the blond. “Nikaido! Come greet my other half."

She rises, shuffles to stand some feet from you, and bows low. A soft murmured greeting is barely perceptible beyond stiff lips.

"Is...why is she like this?" You ask, looking up at the masked face of your powerful lover.

En sighs, squeezing your side. "Unfortunately, Nikaido did not come to us so willingly, darling. With Partnership, there's a certain amount of Will that can be exerted depending on the difference in power. Nikaido has not used her sorcery in quite some time, and is incredibly weak. Until she is more...agreeable, I've imposed my Will upon hers for our family's protection."

You hum, tilting your head thoughtfully. You suppose that makes sense.

You turn your back to her, looking up at your lover and bringing his attention from her to you with your hands on his chest. You feel his big hands squeeze your waist, drawing you in close, and purr as your magic roils within you just for him.

"Congratulations, darling," you whisper, pushing up onto your toes to give him a teasing kiss over his mask. En's cheekbones plump with a smirk, and you smile and cuddle in close, a certain level of relief warming your insides at his attention. "Perhaps we can go celebrate? I’ve missed you." Your voice dips to a whisper, fingers trailing across the firm muscles hidden under the casual shirt he's sporting.

En pulls off a punk look rather well.

He squeezes your hips. "Of course. Nikaido and I shall finish my movie and I'll join you."

You pout, feeling somewhat put out. But you suck your disappointment back in and nod with a sigh.

"Of...Of course, En." You step away, twisting to nod to Nikaido, who watches you silently. En returns to the couch, and you frown when Nikaido sits across his lap once more.

"Let's rewind it, hm?" He asks Nikaido, messing with the remote. “I don’t want you to miss a thing.” A stone falls in your gut, and you glower at the floor as you retreat with your tail between your legs.

 _You agreed to this. You knew this would come_ , you tell yourself, slapping the button for yours and En's personal floors, the doors closing on the frustratingly intimate scene and Nikaido's irritatingly blank gaze.

En does not join you in bed until much later, at which point you've chosen to pretend to sleep, exhausted from pacing the apartments fuming and glowing.

For a week, you get sidelined for Nikaido, watching as En cuddles her close and speaks with her, rarely sparing you an affectionate hand or kiss while entrenched in his distraction. At some point you simply stop attempting to garner his attention, frustrated and hurt, pride wounded in your failed attempts at pulling him away for even a moment from Nikaido or the possibilities her presence presents. You've suffered through endless explanations of the same thing, about what Nikaido will give him in time, being told time for relaxation will come when he's successfully found his ultimate enemy.

When En finally notices, it's only because he happens to be strolling past the gardens with Nikaido behind him. He grunts when Kikurage kicks from his arms, leaping down to the ground and scrabbling through the open doors to the garden.

He pouts, his dear pet never having treated him so coldly before. Glancing to his Partner, he finds her gazing out one of the many windows lining the courtyard of his mushroom garden. He follows her blank eyes outward.

Kikurage flounces through the grass to your presence. You lift your head, sunglasses glinting in the sun, and give the little pet a radiant smile. She bumps her head into your palm, rubbing across your bare arm to your chest, back under your chin. En can just hear your giggle from here when a soft pink tail flicks in your face, feline body twisting to rub against you again and again, clearly pleased by your presence and attention.

"She…" Nikaido's voice is soft, her thought process slowed under En's oppressive Will. "Is your…partner?"

His mouth opens, and he hesitates to disagree, staring out at your languid form lounging under the shade of the trees and giving Kikurage the attention she craves from you.

"En?"

Clearing his throat, En watches your fingers drag across Kikurage's arched spine, never once looking up from her or your book even though he knows you can sense his presence.

"She is," he murmurs. "Not like you and I, but...very much my partner."

Its with some mental clarity that he realizes he hasn't even really seen you during the day, mostly finding you already in bed in his dark bedroom after long hours into the night when he's grown exhausted from planning and scheming on how to use Nikaido's magic once she decides to cooperate, what he'll do when he finds that headless freak. He’s spent a significant amount of time with his new Partner, attempting to endear her to him and his cause, pushing her to flex that magic muscle she so stubbornly refuses to even under his control.

Straightening his shoulders, he grunts his Partner's name. "Come. I must speak with my other half."

He doesn't wait to see if she follows, eyes glued to your form as he jaunts down the steps to the garden. He's reminded of just how much he likes the sight of you surrounded by him and his carefully crafted foliage, even if it's in the form of odd and looming mushrooms. His shoes crunch through the manicured grass, but you still don't look up, even when he says your name. Kikurage jumps at the sound of his booming voice, skittering off somewhere in the carefully constructed mycelium jungle and disappearing entirely.

He pauses only a few feet from you, spying that you're nearing the end of a novel he'd suggested for you on your Blue Night vacation.

"I apologize for my absence," En declares to the garden, peering down at you from where he stands. "I know you understand my excitement for finding such a Partner as Nikaido." He gestures over his shoulder at the blond, who pauses a polite distance away.

"Of course." Your tone is light, agreeable. En narrows his eyes at you suspiciously.

The powerful sorcerer glances to his right. Nikaido stands silently, staring down at you with the blank look. En turns his gaze back to you, watching you lazily kick your bare feet back and forth in the air behind you, the shorts you wear riding high on your thighs and waist. With a perceptive eye during the day, one can see the roll and flicker of your magic under your skin that you can never really control, and he watches it crawl across all the skin you’ve bared. It flickers brighter, a little chaotic, giving away your less than serene emotions that you’re attempting to feign.

Here in his private gardens, you've dared to go topless, shirt abandoned next to you. All of your hair is piled up on top of your head in a stylishly messy bun, revealing the lovely expanse of your bare back to all of his cronies wandering past in the heavily windowed hallway above. With your elbows propping your front half up, breasts drooping deliciously to the grass beneath you, you rest your chin on your hand and keep your gaze lowered to the book open before you.

En narrows his eyes as two guards slow noticeably on their rounds while they're passing your sunbathing form. Beneath his mask, his mouth pulls down into an irritated frown.

"Nikaido." Belatedly, the blond lifts her head from her staring, likely feeling an echo of his attachment to you through his Contract in her chest. "Go take some time for yourself. If I need you, I'll find you."

She bows, dallying to glance back at you as she climbs the steps to the garden entrance. En watches your opalescent gaze lift to follow his Partner's exit over the rim of your sunglasses, face impassive, before returning to your book.

En huffs. "I thought we had an understanding about this."

"About what?" You muse, claw-like gel nails flicking to the next page. They glitter from black to a deep, dangerous red.

"Playing dumb isn't an attractive trait, dear," En glowers, crossing his arms over his chest. The finger you'd been using to track your progress across the page halts. En feels a glimmer of victory, if for a moment.

You remove your sunglasses and dig your fingers into your pretty eyes with a sigh. "En." He doesn’t like the way you sigh his name. You push yourself upright, knees bending for you to sit on your haunches, head tilted back and shoulders presenting perfect posture. The sunlight scattering through the leaves above you dances across the lovely skin of your breasts and nipples, which are beginning to harden upon being exposed to the passing cool breeze.

You're shameless, but you always have been. You enjoy it, and En enjoys it, too. It's what drew En to you in the first place and is what has him befuddled by your current behavior. While he is powerful and can afford to be shameless without much consequence from time to time, the nature of your blatant displays of your body and your desire for him is all muddled up in a mixture of self confidence, survival, and selfishness, and all for one goal; partnership.

En's arms flex, his chest expanding with a deep intake of a controlled breath. You're stunning, and he hasn't seen your body like this in weeks, but he's trying to stay irate with you. "What?"

Your fingers come together in an uncharacteristic sign of restlessness, but your face betrays nothing. "I'm happy for you. I really am. I've wanted you to find a Partner like Nikaido ever since you told me about your goals."

Honesty is a trait En values as well, and he knows you well enough to see that you mean what you say. His shoulders relax, and his brows come down in confusion. "But?"

Your hands part to rest against your beautiful thighs. It's a meditative position, one he watches you take almost every morning on the balcony after you finish your yoga, simply sitting and absorbing the sun and settling your mind. In those private moments, you're usually completely bare, and En sometimes takes that quiet time to simply watch you and your body, take in your grace and revel in his fortune of having someone so lovely in his heart and in his bed. Other times he’s chosen to interrupt your routine, ignore your faux irritation, and fuck you on his balcony for everyone to hear.

You've recently withdrawn from such activities, and he's briefly noted the change in your schedule, but only now realizes why.

You hold his gaze, a look in your eye that makes him want to crouch closer to you and take your hands in his. Instead, he gives you your space and lets you speak. "I’ve always understood that this Partnership is important to you, and it will certainly take time to cultivate, but I shouldn't have to point out the inappropriate way you've been acting around Nikaido and sidelining your actual relationship. You're treating her like you should be treating me. I've been back for weeks now and we haven't made love once."

Your tone never rises or becomes accusing, but the back of En's neck starts to flush hot like he's being scolded. His guilt only intensifies when your lashes flutter under the tension that's been built between you by your statement and his actions, and you finally look away, the smallest of pouts on your painted lips.

En isn’t used to being chastised. He’s the most powerful person this side of the Hole, people tread lightly around him for a reason. You’ve never cowered before him--thought he’s never given you a reason to--but you also tend to follow without showing too much concern for his actions. Your trust in him has been unquestioning, even in the face of other flirtatious individuals and any unsurity in him is usually presented with mild teasing.

En doesn't like this obvious display of genuine malcontent with what should be a victory in his books, especially from the person he loves. He feels the spores of his magic roar with dissatisfaction, puff up in his lungs to be expelled. He swallows the urge back with a growling sigh.

He draws himself upright, pausing before he speaks to movement in the corner of his eye. Both of you glance towards the windows, where another couple of guards have glanced out at you, bare as you are. Normally he would preen over his employees enviously gazing upon what is his and his alone, but not in this moment. With a pang of possessiveness, En sweeps a hand out and floods the glass with a massive growth of mushrooms. They climb and grow until every window in his garden courtyard is covered entirely, their immense presence nearly blotting out the midafternoon sunlight coming from the blue sky above. It makes the soft glow that’s ever presence beneath your skin radiate softly.

His cheeks are flushed, not completely hidden by his mask. Flustered and irritated, En loudly proclaims, “You told me that being my Partner was never your intention. Was that a lie? Are you allowing your jealousy to affect you? That’s disappointing.” Something in the back of En’s mind is telling him he’s going too far, being unfair and reactive. The softness you’ve presented to him in this time of conflict is rapidly deteriorating into a glare of your own enhanced by a flare of light under your skin, unwavering upon his face while he rants. “As you said, Nikaido and I’s connection must be cultivated due to her past transgressions against us and our family. You need to control your feelings, because it will likely take longer than you will find acceptable should you continue down this line of thought, and I don’t have time to entertain such childish notions.”

The force with which you snatch your shirt off the ground makes the fabric crack through the air. You say nothing as you clothe yourself, and En watches you dress in silence. He shifts where he stands, jaw rolling under his mask with unease.

Book in hand, you stand and brush grass off of your legs. With a resolute sigh, you cast him a poisonous glance and flick your wrist. From a burst of dusty black magic, your Door glows brightly with a blinding light, evident of the manifestation of your magic, and swings open to reveal not the bedroom you’ve shared with him for the past six of your ten years together, not any other recognizable room in his mansion you now call yours, too, but the apartment you still own separate from his estate, way out in the countryside. Where you escape to during Blue Nights, where you both retire to when the city becomes too tiresome.

En’s blood runs cold.

“I had hoped to have a more adult conversation about this, but clearly you’re feeling defensive,” you snap. A wavering undercurrent of emotion that bursts bright from your chest and rolls out across your shoulders and neck, one you try to swallow back in your voice has En blinking in shock. “I’ll take my leave, and maybe you can take some time to examine your own behavior, En.” You turn your back on him to step through the doorway.

“Wait!”

En’s grasp on your wrist keeps you still. There’s a tense moment of uncertainty between you, that only dissipates somewhat with the disappearance of your Door. With the shining strength of the doorway gone, the softness of yours comes back to him, and he shakes away the sunspot left behind in his vision.

You frown at him over your shoulder, still somehow managing to look stunning even when upset. “I don’t have all day to be lectured, En.”

En takes a centering breath, reminiscent of all the times he’s joined you on that balcony to run through the thoughtful process of the yoga routine you seem so devoted to. His hand slides from your wrist down to your hand, and he winces when he realizes he can’t quite remember the last time he’s held your hand like this.

He says your name softly, caressing each syllable carefully. “I apologize.” He gently squeezes your fingers, hoping to draw you closer. You resist, tilting your chin up defiantly at him as you wait. He can’t help the smile beneath his mask, your pride an admirable thing indeed. “I was too harsh. I know that you understand, though I will say I am somewhat confused about your claims.”

You huff through your nose, a strangely charming show of frustration to the Mushroom King. He brushes his thumb back and forth over your warm skin, relishing the contact. “En, you must realize how physical you’ve been with Nikaido." He doesn't appreciate your scoff when he gives you a confused tilt of his head. "You're encouraging her to stand with your arm around her or sit in your lap and lean against you. Like...like a lover. We don't go to bed together anymore because you're obsessed with her. You’re even changing how you dress for her.” He looks down as you pluck at the leather jacket he’s been sporting as opposed to his usual sharp suits.

“You don’t like the leather jacket?” He mumbles. He thinks he looks pretty good in it.

You sniff, looking unimpressed. “I do like the leather jacket, but that’s not the point. The point is that...I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s her Contract inside of you that’s changing you, or if your control over the link isn’t as strong as you think, but what I do know is that you made a promise to _me_ , En.” You tug on his cool new jacket. His eyes cut back up to you, watching you take a slow step closer, inches from his body. You tilt your head back, seeing as you’re so much shorter than he is, and narrow your eyes at him. “Do you remember that promise, En?”

He swallows, fingers slowly weaving between yours. “I do.”

“Do you?” You ask softly. Your hand fists the lapel of his jacket, tugging yourself closer and up onto your toes. En breathes in deeply, your natural scent and the warmth you’ve absorbed from the sun rolling over him with a comfortingly familiar ease. Your lips just reach his chin, pressing a hypnotizing kiss to his masked skin. He wishes he could feel your lips against his instead.

“Show me,” you whisper, beg, need. Not because it's you who needs to be reminded, but to remind _him_ , and he knows this. It’s in your tone, in your strong, dizzying, unnaturally piercing gaze, in the thrum of restless magic beneath your softly glowing skin that feels like home to his cooler, more clammy palms where they slip under your shirt.

He digs his fingers into your waist, feeling your body for the first time in much too long. He feels your ribs expand with your breath, feels your soft skin beneath his massaging palms. His arms flex when he draws you against him, peering down at you beneath heavy lids as the impossible intoxication of your proximity, still so strong after 10 years of being together, washes over him and makes his knees feel weak and his magic reach for yours.

It's a strange and addicting feeling. En has been falling into the intense newness and possibility of his fresh Contracted Partnership with Nikaido; having a piece of someone else inside you certainly has a similar and wildly intimate reaction not unlike what he has with you.

But En reminds himself, as he sweeps your shirt up your back with his wrists, unwilling to take his hands away from you and instead watches you slowly peel the offending garment off your body again, that the way his magic has tied itself to you and yours has been built upon a deep and sturdy foundation of intention, trust, negotiation, and a few strange occultist sex rituals. He watches, entranced, as your glowing magic throbs and pulses beneath your skin in uneven but no less beautiful patterns.

Centering a hand on your back, his other curves around to your belly, up between your rising and falling breasts to press against your chest, thumb and fingers framing your throat. Your gaze is heavy and thick, fingers twisted still in the leather of his jacket. He feels your magic surge under his fingers, feels the familiar vibrations in the way it so perfectly compliments his own until he feels like everything in and between you is wrapped up in the same deafening frequency--makes his mouth water and his gut tighten. Your magic reacts to his touch, makes a glow emanate from beneath his palm, and he feels your chest hitch as he draws it to the surface above your quickened heart.

To others it may unnerve them, to see the way your veins twist beneath your glowing skin, to see the pull and stretch of flesh and ligaments and artery structure of your body. But to him, he sees the life your light brings forth, feels it as his fungal network arches towards you like a shaded sun.

In En's rapturous awe, he fails to notice your fingers crawling up his front until you're easing his mask down. He leans in, hand sliding to grip a warm breast as he kisses you, fingers indenting flesh while his tongue dips against yours between pliant lips.

He's coupled with you so many times he can feel the microscopic spores embedded in your body and cradled gently by your magic flare to life in your blood and your saliva. It makes En growl as he tastes you, hands gripping tighter, hauling you up against his body with the physical reminder of his own imprint upon you.

You gasp and let him push you back to the earth, spreading your legs as he falls to his knees between them and tears your shorts away. Entirely nude, you splay yourself in the grass before him, lighting the courtyard in a breathtaking glow only encouraged by the sweeping, kneading touches of his broad and sure hands.

"You're enchanting," he groans, baring his teeth at the bioluminescent streaks across your skin that follow after his fingers. They fade slowly but no matter where he touches the afterimage feels burned into his retina. Glowing hand prints on your thighs and breasts, long streaks of fingers down your stomach and arms, lips and teeth scattered across your skin. He groans with you as his tongue swirls around a strongly pebbled nipple, watching the belated glow of the tightened wet flesh come to life, calling him to eagerly suckle the flesh deep into his mouth again.

"En!" Your needy moan floats up along the mycelium covered walls of the courtyard, and he feels the vibration of your call for him through each stretched gill of his protective, possessive growths he is so innately connected to. He shivers, ruts against you, grunts when you wrap your warm limbs around him and rub yourself against him.

His tongue swirls with yours again in loud, moaning kisses, fumbling with his belt as you rip his shirt upwards to feel his skin on yours. You glow impossibly brighter at the contact, almost blinding in your phosphorescence.

He blinks the dizziness from his gaze when he sits up swiftly in order to press his weeping cock to your cunt, and for a second mistakes the glimmer of green freckled across your body as a weird flare of your magic or visual snow from blood pooling southward. It's with a lurch of arousal and realization that the glow is not your own doing, but a foreign growth-- _him_ , his spores, his seed, visible and growing and pulsing just beneath your skin so much stronger than he ever thought you'd allow. To be spored by him is inviting death and control, but you've encouraged him in the past, allowed pieces of him to cultivate with love and trust, allowed him to take root to a cellular level.

He groans, cock leaking all over your pussy, his fingers reverently tracing constellations across the bright green freckles on your body. The connections glow with your magic and his, and you arch into the gentle touch with a sigh.

"Does this please you, En?" You whisper, your own bright fingers swirling down your body, entrancing and restless. "Your magic inside me? Your spores a part of me?" You fold your hands across it like a mother would her pregnant belly, and En never thought a sight like this would make him swoon.

He nods, pants a soft, "Yes, my love…"

Your thighs fall open, the glimmer of your wet cunt not unaffected by the waves of light flowing under your skin, giving your slick a pearlescent translucence that makes his mouth water. "I love it," you sigh, toes curling into the grass to arch your hips up. He grips your hips tightly, keeping you in place when your wiggling almost takes you too far from him--even a few inches is too far right now.

"I love that I...that I can _see_ it. See _you_ ," you pant, letting his hands push under yours to sweep over the sight again, grasp at you. You push yourself into his touch, like his hands could move through your skin to feel just how deep his seed has buried itself.

He almost can't take not being inside of you. He attempts to jerk you closer across the grass, but a manicured foot presses hard into his heaving chest, making him blink at you in confusion.

You're pouting at him, leaving a hypnotic swirl of light under your skin with the slow rove of a finger across your chest.

"What was your promise, En?" Your foot could easily be pushed aside--En is larger, physically stronger than you in all ways. "Tell me."

Instead he wraps his hands lovingly around your calf, appreciates your ankle and back of your knee. He drags your foot up to press a kiss to the clean pad, all while gazing at you with unconcealed desire.

He swallows. "That nothing would change," he whispers, your foot twitching at the ticklish touch of his breath and scruff whispering across it. "I promised when I found my Partner, nothing would change between us."

Your leg remains stiffly in place. You narrow your glowing eyes, tilt your cheek into the grass, and ask, "Has it?"

En quickly shakes his head, kissing the arch of your foot, then your ankle, hoping his affection will ease you. And it does. Like a key in a lock, each kiss down your leg lifts a pin until he finds himself slotted against you once more, cock grinding through your slick, your hands grasping him close to your heaving chest.

Your knees fall open for him, baring yourself and your glow entirely.

"Prove it," you whisper against his kiss. “Show me that you’re still _mine_.”

En’s heart races at the mere implication that you thought he ever _wasn’t_ , catching his elbow behind your knee and bending you until he can feel your body against his, drag his fingers across your neck and scalp, tug you down into the earth to let dripping cock part the wet, swollen petals of your body. Your hands slip up the back of his shirt, feeling at the curve of his spine and the hunch of his shoulders, drawing him closer.

His thumb rubs against your cheek, drawing your eyes to his as he pushes forward. Your mouth drops open, brow pinching, nails dragging down his back so hard he knows he’ll have marks, and he purrs. You’re tight even after all the preparation he gave you, evident from just how long you’ve spent away from him, and En kisses you as if to apologize for his absence from you.

It’s like a punch to the gut for both of you when your hole spreads and sucks the mushroom head of his cock inside. A low growling hum of delight escapes him, watching you pant and arch and sweat, your head tilted back into the earth and your lashes almost touching your cheeks, blown out pupils focused on him. En’s hips sway forward slowly, petting across your taught belly, mindful of your body and his. A stuttering flare of light ripples across your skin, a mesmerizing pattern that blooms pinks and golds into something softer as he sinks into the warm, wet, clasping hug of your body.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers, big hand softly following the entrancing path of dampened light up between your breasts, across your throat, then back down, his other hand squeezing your waist. “Otherworldly. Ethereal.” You moan, your legs climbing his sides to wrap tight around his thick middle, quivering as his muscles move under your hold to drag himself out and thrust back in. His pace is slow and heavy, purposeful in his goal to reestablish himself within your body and your heart. He cares little for the feeling of his knees digging into dirt and ruining his jeans, or the toes of his leather boots sinking past the manicured grass. He cares only for how he can bring you the pleasure and attention and love that you deserve from _him._

Your hands wind into the open fabric of his jacket and shirt, dragging him down for a messy kiss. You bite at his lips and tongue, and he revels in your need to have him deeper, as deep as you can get him, wherever you can have him. It makes his head spin, gasping wet and pulling away despite the sting of your teeth attempting to keep his mouth on yours, lip tugging away sharply. En bares his teeth at you in a wince, and you clasp his cheeks and brush your thumb clumsy over the redness you left behind, glowing eyes drowsy and drunk on his.

"D-Dont forget, En," you gasp, curling your hips up into every wet impact of his cock inside your body. He trains his wide eyes on you, hips never faltering in their slow, deep pistoning motion. "I _let_ you g-grow inside me because I _want_ you there. Because _you_ w-want to be _in me, always_. Because you _love me._ "

En hisses, throbbing between your clenching walls, pulling thick sticky strands of your slick out and across his cock with every thrust, painting it pearlescent. The little specks of radioactive green swirling in your skin and blood flicker back at him to the truth and power of your words. He sweeps a hand down over your belly, massaging at your body and hips, watching the iridescent slick around his cock glitter with every withdraw from inside you, offering a wet, welcoming squelch when he eagerly returns.

"Yes," he groans, thumb burrowing against your clit, making your back twitch up, hair tangling in the flare of mycological growth that has erupted around your body in his loss of control, small shaking fingers tearing at his shirt. "Yes, I love you, darling. Oh _fuck_ , I love you and I _chose you_."

Your hips give a mind numbing twist with a low little whimper of his name, legs tightening at his back. En grunts, wet thumb circling your swollen nerves swiftly and with purpose.

You whine and cry for him, echoing through the garden with the spasm of your pussy against the push of his dick, and En watches with delight as you come for him, breasts bobbing with his thrusts, the squelch of you gushing around his cock growing louder as it drips down his balls and into the grass beneath your ass. He salivates over the strange, alien patterns that glow and writhe across your skin like pulsing flares of a contained sun, speckled by the greenish glow of his spores that are embedded in your biology. Your thighs quiver, and En gasps, thrusting forward hard and burying himself as deep as he can as he falls with you.

The sclera of your eyes flicker like candles in the dark, lighting up the different striations of color that make up your irises, the thin skin of your eyelids, snaked with purple veins, drooping to watch him come. You gnaw your bottom lip and arch into the heavy press of his hips, still managing to rock his cock back and forth, bear down upon him with a squeeze of your gummy walls. En chokes and drops his chin to his chest, and swears he can see the soft green bloom low in your belly of his seed filling you and taking root once more. He gives a shaky, growling moan past grit teeth, another throbbing ribbon of cum escaping him into you and making him sway on his grass-stained knees.

En gulps down humid air, fingers shaking as he strokes along your body, refusing to pull out. You don't make any move to push him away, either, basking in the dying embers of your magic and love making, fingers dancing over the back of his hands where they've come to rest on your belly, up to rake across the sparse brush of red hair that trails across his broad chest.

He leans forward and kisses you wetly, humming a groan against your tongue. You fist his mask where it clings to his neck, tugging him closer, vision glittering with the prolonged air loss.

"I'm sorry," he pants, petting his hands across your damp skin. "I'm sorry for my inconsiderate behavior and…" Another breathless kiss. "...and for being so thoughtless."

You sigh, head dropping back to the grass. The deep blue of your jugular beats quick and apparent, slowing gently in the aftermath. You're also petting him along his broad back and hips, looking significantly calmer than before.

"I forgive you," you whisper, giving him a chaste kiss. You both sigh when En sits up and removes his softening cock from within you. You rest with your eyes closed while En licks his lips at the sight of his thick cum connecting the head of his dick to your cunt, oozing out from between flowered lips and smeared across the entire apex of your thighs and his. Mixed with you, it glimmers softly where it drips along his skin and down to the grass below.

"I'm sorry for being jealous." En looks up from your pussy, hands resting on your spread thighs. Your chest falls with a sigh, your skin almost back to normal. "We've known this day would come. I suppose after ten years, a part of me had put the possibility to rest and... I was caught off guard. I reacted poorly and I apologize. "

En grunts as he turns and lies down beside you, taking your hand and gazing up at the little bit of cloudy sky he can see past his impulsive mushroom growths and the tree canopy.

"I don't blame you too much. The chances have always been slim, and my behavior towards Nikaido has been inappropriate, as you said. I'll be more aware of myself going forward and more respectful of our relationship. I know you haven't indulged in a Contracted Partner and all the intricacies that come with it, but please understand that it has been known to...change people."

He rolls to face you, drawing your nude body against his. En nudges your chin with a finger, encouraging you to look at him. "I promised you before that nothing would change between us, and I stand by that. I _will_ work harder for you, and I _will_ be more mindful of you. I hope you can continue to put your trust in me for many more years to come."

En is powerful, and En is terrifying, but En is also a man. You haven't forgotten this and neither has he, and you remember that now in his acknowledgement of his mistakes and shortcomings for the betterment of _your_ partnership.

You give him a sweet peck, nuzzling your way into his strong embrace. En sighs, nose in your damp hair and the soft glow of your skin behind his eyelids, and he knows that nothing in this strange world really compares to _this_.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, and i hope it wasn't confusing????? i hope the difference between Partner and partner was apparent. The difference was intentional :|
> 
> this was edited by only myself lol
> 
> I do also hope the descriptions of the Reader's light magic came off well. I wanted it to be a little freaky and weird, but also cool and pretty.
> 
> kudos/comments are life <3


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